Magneto and Bobby Jones

The Prisoner episodes 4 - 6
Ian McKellen, Jim Caviezel, Hayley Atwell, Ruth Wilson, Lennie James

4 Darling
Lucy's storyline comes to an end and 415's begins. 313 is in love with 6, but being forced by 2 to administer a drug to 6 that is making him think he's in love with 415. 2 also gives 313 to power to inject 6 with a drug that will make him fall out of love with 415 - but tells her that doing that may not be what is best for 6. The moment he tells her about it, you know the will use it. She does, and still 6 says he loves 415 and that he wants to marry her, not knowing that 313 is in love with him. She waits until 5 and 415's wedding to kiss 6.
Oh yeah, and 415 is blind - but nothing is wrong with her eyes. "They" made her blind so that she wouldn't remember being Lucy. At the very end, she admits to 6 that she is Lucy and not 415 and that they must never see each other again (pun intended - admitting she is Lucy restores her vision). The episode ends with 415 jumping into a "Hole of Oblivion"

6 is less in control of himself than any point before, which Caviezel kind of fucks up in my opinion. 6 has such a forceful personality, that even in love, he would still be 'present'. Instead he's kind of distant and a lot quieter, but we get no sense of an internal dialoque, nor are we told by 2 that the "gene therapy" to make 6 love 415 will effect anything else about him. Meh.
Also, by this point, the ending plot twist is evident, and it's not the same as the original series. I won't give it away until the appropriate section down the page. ;)

5 Schizoid
2 has somehow split 6 into 6 and 2x6. 6 is still his normal, earnest self, 2x6 is full of hate and um, earnestness. 6 warns 2 that 2x6 is going to kill him (2). 2 decides a great way to deal with this is to become the un2 and announces there is a disheveled looking fellow impersonating him. To say that McKellen is awesom in this series and in this episode in particular is nothing special. He is one of, if not the greatest living actor in my  humble opinion. I guess it would only be worth mentioning if he weren't great, but he is, so don't worry.
So there is the good 6, and there is the bad 6; and anyone who has watched Fight Club knows what is going on almsot instantly. Okay, I was the only one watching this, so maybe I just ruined it for you. Sue me. ;) There is a point near the end, where 313 sees the good 6 while dealing with the bad 6, but she's so unstable by this point that you don't know if she is seeing 'reality' or not.
Mean while. 11-12 (2's son) has been given the key to his mother's medicine cabinet and permission from his dad to allow his mom to wake up. The problem is that when she's awake, reality starts to unravel. We are never told her number, and earlier in the series we were told that there is no 1, but that 2 is the lowest number. 11-12 learns from his mother that the "other place" is real, and by extension that everything 6 has been saying is true - not just that there is another place, but that the Village is a prison. In the end, 11-12 decides that his mother must go back to sleep for the sake of them all.

This ep was different in flavor from all the others so far, in that it follows 2 and he is suddenly Mr. Happy-go-lucky. It was a nice counter-point to all the negative things that 6 has been saying about the village. Which is good, since 6 - either good 6 or the bad 6x2 - is more distant than ever.

6 Checkmate
All is revealed. Well, more or less. 6 has a break-through in his flashbacks, but this is more evident through my interpretation of what is going on than anything 6 says or does. What is the break-through? 6 becomes aware that his flashbacks have become real-time, and that he is co-existing in the real world (the "other place") and in the Village. Not only does his Village self know about the real world, but his real world self is aware about of the goings on in the Village. He meets everyone in the real world that he has been interacting with in the Village, and none but Curtis (2) and Helen (2's wife - presumably 1) are aware of the village. We learn that the Village is all in Helen's mind and all the numbers are projections in her mind. It's not their conscious or unconscious selves that are active in the Village, but some other "layer" that is not explicated about.
McKellen is great, which I know I don't need to say, as is Wilson - finally revealing 313's increasing neurosis as based in her real self, Sarah. But, I'm not too happy with what they do with 6. By the end he's gone from brash and energetic to quiet and demure. I would expect that having a great epihpeny in one's life would take away the the anger and the earnestness, but not that it would make him docile. Perhaps if they had spent more time showing the process I would have bought it.
We learn that people dying in the Village does not equal dying in the real world, just removes them from the Village (I guess the exception would be people who were born in the Village.) Helen and 2 both die, each through their own rather interesting and unique ordeal. And 313 and 6 take their places, respectively.

Final thoughts: I liked everythign about this series except for the arc of 6. He became less and less important as time went on - not that he got necessarily less screen time mind you. Should I hold Caviezel or the director responsible for this? I'll hold both of them at fault, that way I am sure to get the right one. :) But, just because I've found this fault with the portrayal of 6 doesn't mean that I didn't think Caviezel did a good job or that 6 was a bad character. In general, I really love the performance of all the british actors, and just liked the performances of the American actors. But, I kind of feel that way in general. I just think the Brits are better actors than Americans - in general. I think there are brilliant American actors, but Caviezel isn't one of them. He's good, but not brilliant.

You should definitely watch this series. I know that it differs from the original series, but that is not a bad thing. I guess maybe if you were in love with the original, which according to my aunt was the best television series ever, and is in fact so good that no other series has or will come close to it; well you might not like this one. Might. How can you not like McKellen though?

Gandalf and Jesus Christ

The Prisoner episodes 1 - 3
Ian McKellan, Jim Caviezel, Hayley Atwell, Ruth Wilson, Lennie James

1 Arrival
Our hero 'awakes' in the desert, or is he near the ocean, or is he in the mountains. He doesn't know, and neither do we, well not until later. We know he's our hero, because even though he doesn't know where he is or how he got there or for that matter who he is; he sees an elderly gentleman being chased by men with dogs and guns. He rushes to the man's aid getting the two of them safely hidden in a cave only for the old guy to die, but not until uttering the cryptic, "Tell them I got away. Tell 554."
Our dude wonders in the wastes for some uknown amount of time before finding a row of A-frame houses, all identical, setting in front of another row of identical homes.
Our hero, played by Caviezel, we eventually learn is called 6. We meet friendly taxi driver 147 played by James and the doctor 313 played by Wilson. But none of them make the impression that the mysterious and likely diabolical 2, played by McKellan, makes on us or on 6.
6 tries to escape, by going off into the wastes, only to pass out from exhaustion or exposer or something, only to have hallucinations of a meeting with some woman, played by Atwell.
This was an interesting introduction to the story. I know that this is a remake of the classic Patrick McGoohan series of the same name. I have seen parts of episodes of that series and have a basic idea of what transpired. I also know that The Prisoner was the third series in the trilogy to feature 6 - I know one of ther other series was called Secret Agent Man of which part of the theme song is, "...given you a number, taken away your name...Secret Agent Man" (it's better if you imagine me singing it). I think the first series may have been called Man From Uncle. Maybe.
I'm digging the whole mind-fuck vibe. But, I can't help but wonder taht why when 6 tries his escape he didn't take bottles of water with him.

2 Harmony
6 still thinks it's all a sham, until produces 6's brother, 16. 16 earnestly tries to convince 6 that they are brothers, providing pictures of the two of them together as boys. 6 is having dreams and flashbacks where he remembers the boys in the picture, but his brother's name is David not 16 and he knows that something happened to his real brother.
Eventually, 6 confesses to 16 that he no longer knows which is the dream and which is reality, only to have 16 breakdown and confess that he's not really his brother, but works for 2.
6, 16 and a woman they met on a tour bus head into the desert to where she claims to have once heard the sea. Eventually (gosh I'm saying that a lot) they actually do come to the ocean. 16 runs out into the water and 6 finally has the ending of his memory clear to him - his real brother drowned. 6 is yelling at 16 to get out of the water when a giant white bacll comes out of the deep and pushes 16 underwater, holding him there until he drowns, before disappearing back into the surf.
What? I did mention the big white ball in the first episode? Giant white beach ball kind of deal that ran over 6 while in the desert trying to escape.
Nobody will believe 6 that his brother is dead, and he convinces 313 to go with him to where he and the others found the ocean, but when they get there, only sand dunes as far as the eye can see.

Again, I ask what's up with heading out into the desert and not bringing any water? Was the ocean there and now 6 has to believe that his captors can move oceans, or is it the case that he has hallucinated the ocean and 16's drowning? Or when he comes back with 16 is the ocean really there but they're made to think it's not? I suspect I'll find out in later episodes.

3 Anvil
Big brother is a lot of little brothers all spying on each other. 2 makes 6 an offer he can't refuse. 6 accepts it as the mission is to find the underground, the dreamers. All he manages to do is to drive the History to slashing his own throat while 6 and his surveillance partner watch.
Everybody is spying on everybody in this episode and at one point 6 even speculates that everyone in the village is an undercover aent keepin tabs on someone else.
And then 6's partner is knifed to death by 2's son at 2's orders, 313 is taken away to the tunnel where 6 goes to rescue her with the help of one of his students who is definitely spying on him.
And somehow I've left out 2's weird relationship with his comatose wife whom he keeps sedated because not only is she a dreamer, but a lucid one. Oh, and there isn't only the village, there is also the "other place" and 6 may be 2's son.
6 finally learns through his flashbacks that he was an analyst for a company that was viewing CCTV feed.

Okay, now we're getting somewhere. I don't know where. But, that's okay because neither does 6. This episode was definitely setting up for what comes next and was more fast-paced than the first two. Not better or worse, just different pacing with more action.

So far, so good. I don't know how this is going to wrap up, and I do know how the classic series did. That is a good thing. Perhaps 6's flashbacks are things that we would have known had there been remakes of the two previous series as well. I don't imagine the classic series using a lot of flashbacks for some reason. But, maybe it was jam-packed with them, too.

I'm going to go ahead and recommend you watch this series - the first three episodes are a great way to pass an evening and left me with a promise that tomorrow night's viewing will be entertaining as well.